The telecommunication network patch panel installations are well known in the prior art with said patch panels comprising in their front region a plurality of panel ports to be interconnected, two by two, in a previously designed manner, by a patch cord having at each end a connector to be inserted and retained in a respective port of a pair of panel ports, a port being connected, by the rear region of the panel, to a line telecommunication, for example a connection to a network switch, router or PBX, while the other port of the pair is connected, also by the back region of the panel, to another telecommunication line, for example a local network point or socket where it will be connected to a computer, telephone, printer, server, or other equipment. The patch cord thus enables the organized connection of each pair of panel ports, that is, of each two lines of telecommunication in an arrangement which can be rearranged, at any time, according to the variable operational requirements of each installation.
In this type of installation of telecommunication network patch panels, it is common to change the arrangement of the interconnections between the different telecommunication lines connected to the panel ports, requiring the operator to carefully note the ports to have their interconnection performed by a respective patch cord.
In installations with a large number of patch panels and panel ports, the operator in charge of deploying or rearranging the interconnections is required to expend effort and time to overcome the usual difficulties in safely locating the panel ports to have their interconnection effected or rearranged, and there is an effective risk of interconnection errors that will also require efforts to detect and correct them, particularly in installations with a high number of telecommunication lines to have their interconnections effected, complemented or rearranged.
Due to the inconveniences of the operations of effecting, complementing and rearranging interconnections between the panel ports, made by manual annotations to be followed by the operators, computerized systems were proposed for tracking and individual identification of the interconnection of each two patch panel ports, through a patch cord. In such an interconnection system, each of the opposing ends of each patch cord carries a connector on which is secured an identification tag containing the data for the individual identification of each patch cord to be applied to the patch panels which are usually mounted in a structure disposed in an enclosure, for example a room, generally restricted access.
In such installations, the patch panels have each panel port operatively associated with a sensor capable of reading the data contained in the identification tag of the connector that is inserted in a respective port of the patch panel. A controller device is operatively associated with the patch panels to identify/track whether certain patch cords are with their connectors connected to the port pairs of the patch panels, in accordance with the desired arrangement.
A known identification system is that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,605,707 in which it is proposed to use an RF antenna associated with each panel port and still to an RFID reader device. Each connector carries an RFID identification tag with a microchip containing the unique identity data of a respective patch cord and to be detected by the RF antenna of a panel port when a respective connector is inserted or removed from said panel port. The signals detected by the RF antenna are then transmitted to the reader device provided with a processor which transforms the RF antenna signals into digital data to be stored in a database of a computerized controller device, which registers the connection condition of the patch cord, allowing the identification of each two panel ports that are interconnected by the same patch cord or that have been disconnected from each other.
This prior solution also provides light indicators, in the form of LEDs, associated with each panel port, to indicate, by the actuation of the controller device, that the respective panel port has inserted therein or removed therefrom an end connector of a respective patch cord.
Although providing a computerized identification tracking of the different interconnections of the pairs of ports in a patch panel installation, this prior solution presents, as an inconvenience, the requirement to communicate on radio frequencies from 868 MHz to 950 MHz, or in the 2.4 GHz band. Said frequencies are quite high and make complex the circuits and components needed to conduct, switch and read the signals, leading to a fairly high cost solution. Another disadvantage of these levels of frequency is the fact that there is no global standardization for them, so that each country or region (USA, Europe, Japan, and others) has different requirements and therefore the solution needs to be adapted locally.
Another known solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,293, in which it is proposed to use tracking modules to be attached to each patch panel, each tracking module carrying, associated with each port of the respective patch panel, a light indicator (LED), a sensor, usually mechanical, and a tracker button, connected to a controller device. In this previous solution, the detection of the insertion of a connector in a port is defined by the actuation of the respective sensor. The detection of a connection or a disconnection is made by the actuation of the respective sensor that does not constitute an antenna and the end connectors of the patch cords do not carry any identification tag.
Further according to this foregoing solution, the pressing of a respective tracker button associated with each panel port causes the lighting of the light indicator associated with that button and the controller device locates the opposite end of the respective patch cord and energizes the light indicator (LED) associated with the receiving port on the opposite end of the same patch cord.
Although providing a computerized identification tracking of the different port pairs interconnections in a patch panel installation, this second prior solution presents, as an inconvenience, the fact that the tracking module carries a sensor generally mechanical, and a tracker button for each patch panel port, making each tracking module more complex and less compact, as well as making the connectors (male and/or female) no longer follow the pattern in order to accommodate those keys.
Another drawback arises from the fact that there is no unique identifier on the patch cord (the system only detects the presence or absence but does not identify the element) so the system needs to assume that any two connections detected consecutively correspond to a patch cord. The consistency of the database heavily depends on the training and the discipline of the operator to execute the connections in that specific way. If this does not happen, or if there are different delays between the panel controllers to route detections to the server, the database will be inconsistent and the system will lose its utility.
Other identification systems using RFID may be seen in patent documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,665,107; 8,427,335; and 8,171,468, which have at least some of the drawbacks discussed above.
Still other systems are known such as that one in which an additional path is used to the patch cord and through which the data travels between the patch panels; that one in which the smart solution is made by contacting a chip fixed to the patch cord with its reader in the patch panel; or yet one in which the patch panel recognizes the presence of the patch cord by approximation, using optical or infrared sensor technology.
These known solutions either do not allow the inclusion of customized information on the patch cord or do not prevent misidentification of patch cords, due to the possibility of the optical or infrared sensors to detect any element that is close to a port or even being cheated by a reflexive surface (e.g. the acrylic cover of an equipment installed below the patch panel), or require connecting elements which do not follow the industry standard, or complex circuits that have too high costs.